John Willis began a one-year term as head of SAMPE and immediately suggested to the board that future SAMPE presidents would serve two years.
``You just get started during your first year,'' said Willis, sales manager for Graphite Master in Los Angeles. A typical SAMPE president works through various SAMPE chairs and offices for about 12 years before taking the top position.
The board named newsletter publisher-editor Bill Benjamin of Gilbert, Ariz., as editor of the bimonthly SAMPE Journal and composites industry consultant Scott Beckwith of Murray, Utah, as SAMPE's acting technical director. Benjamin and Beckwith assumed the duties following Charles Hamermesh's March 25 death.
Hamermesh was both technical director and editor at SAMPE offices in Covina, Calif.